Fogarty International Clinical Research Fellows Program: Burden of leptospirosis in slum communities

Research Summary

Albert Ko is a Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine. His research focuses on infectious diseases that have emerged as a consequence of rapid urbanization and urban poverty, and conducts much of his research in Brazil. Dr. Ko is particularly interested in understanding the natural history of leptospirosis, a disease that has become a health problem in urban slum environments. He also conducts research on bacterial meningitis, vaccine-preventable diseases and dengue. Dr. Ko is the head of the division of epidemiology of microbial disease at the department of epidemiology and public health at the School of Medicine.

Dr. Ko received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He is the deputy editor of Public Library of Science Neglected Tropical Diseases and is a founding member of the Urban Health Council of the Residents’ Associations of Pau da Lima. Dr. Ko is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, a member of the Brazilian Society of Tropical Medicine and an executive board member of the International Leptospirosis Society. He is a member of the leptospirosis burden epidemiology review group at the World Health Organization and received the Clinical Infectious Disease award for outstanding review.